Rudy Calls on State Department Official to ‘Step Forward and Explain’ Ukraine Outreach
Following Thursday’s release of the bombshell whistleblower complaint that alleges the White House tried to “lock down” records of President Donald Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president in which he sought election interference from a foreign leader, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani lashed out at the State Department, demanding its representative for Ukraine negotiations “step forward” and admit he was working for the department.
Among the eyebrow-raising allegations contained in the whistleblower complaint was the allegation that the State Department was “deeply concerned” about Giuliani’s communications with Ukrainian leaders.
During his Thursday night appearance on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, Giuliani reiterated his previous claims that the State Department asked him to reach out to Ukraine to inquire about Ukrainian investigations, including into former Vice President Joe Biden and his family.
Pointing to text messages he purportedly shared with U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker, Giuliani insisted that the messages prove that his Aug. 2 Madrid meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser Andriy Yermak wasn’t a “direct follow-up” to Trump’s call but instead set up by State.
“Are you concerned that you are unnecessarily dragging his name into this?” Fox host Laura Ingraham asked.
“He should step forward and explain what he did,” Giuliani responded. “The whistleblower falsely alleges that I was operating on my own. Well, I wasn’t operating on my own!”
Giuliani went on to claim that he spoke to Volker eight times and that the State Department “basically knew everything I was doing,” further stating that he was sent one message where the department gave him a “big thank-you.”
“I should actually get some kind of an award,” he added, echoing his assertion earlier in the day that he’ll “be the hero” in the end.
Ingraham noted that people were “extremely confused” about his relationship with the State Department, asking why it was giving him “marching orders” for his Ukrainian investigations.
“There’s a reason I’m in the middle of this and it emerges from the corruption of how they tried to hide this for years, including trying to cover up Biden for years,” Giuliani, who won’t say if he has a security clearance, declared. “I got this because the FBI wouldn’t take it.”
After claiming that he now gets a “visceral reaction” to Biden and doing a weird impersonation of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Giuliani was once again asked why he was working with State rather than the FBI or the Department of Justice.
“For a year and a half, [Ukrainians] were trying to get these—this information to the FBI but they weren’t interested,” the former New York City mayor alleged. “They even hired a lawyer in America. They even gave it to several U.S. attorneys.”
Giuliani, at the same time, repeatedly insisted that he “didn’t reach out to the State Department,” prompting Ingraham to ask if Giuliani was acting as Trump’s “personal representative interfacing with State” or as a “kind of a pseudo-government emissary working to ferret out corruption in the Ukraine.”
“They asked me if I would take a call from Yermak and if I would meet with him, and I did and I reported it back to them, and the conversation was completely normal, and there was no bribery and there was no extortion,” Giuliani replied. “Nothing like what Biden did. I didn’t do that and the president didn’t do that.”
The Fox News host, meanwhile, noted that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is reportedly unhappy with Giuliani, causing the ex-mayor to say the State Department “should congratulate him” because he unveiled “mass corruption” by Biden. (There is no evidence Biden or his son were responsible for any wrongdoing in Ukraine.)
“In fact, I’m the legitimate whistleblower,” he boasted. “I have uncovered corruption that this Washington swamp has been covering up effectively for years and his State Department, you know, asked me to do this. So Mike, if you’re unhappy with me, I’m sorry but I accomplished my mission.”
“I have no idea if he is unhappy with me or not,” Giuliani added. “Frankly, I don’t care. I’m the president’s lawyer!”
During an interview with The Atlantic hours earlier, however, Giuliani said: “I’m not acting as a lawyer. I’m acting as someone who has devoted most of his life to straightening out government.”
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